and I finally connected with a deer tonight.  However, I couldn't find her.

15 minutes past sundown, two doe came in about 25 yards to my left.  Doe 1 trotted right through my best shooting lane before I could draw.  I grunted and doe 2 stopped right in my shooting lane, giving me a broadside shot.  I took the shot, and heard my arrow skitter through the leaves.  Doe 2 turned, ran back the direction from where they both had come, and she laid down about 30 yards back.  I made a note of the tree she was laying near.

Doe 1, who was trotting along ahead of doe 2, turned around and watched doe 2 run off.  Doe 1 acted a bit leery, looking around for trouble, and after a minute or two trotted off after doe 2.  When doe 1 got near where doe 2 was laying, doe 1 turned and bolted.

I gave it another 15 minutes before I quietly packed up, and started down the tree 30 minutes after my shot.  Still not 100% that I had connected with my shot, I made a quiet approach toward where I thought my arrow would be.  Red light on my head lamp, I found my arrow right where I expected to find it.  It had buried itself in the dirt just past the broadhead.  The vanes were spattered with blood, the shaft  as well, there was some hair on the first few inches past the broadhead, and a little bit of gore on the broadhead.  Couldn't find any blood on the ground anywhere.

Spent fifteen minutes looking for a blood trail before heading out to where I though the doe had laid down.  Nothing.  Went home, grabbed a bite to eat, got a serious flashlight, and went back out an hour later to spend another hour looking.  Nothing.

TL;DR: Shot a deer, blood and hair on the arrow, none on the ground, and I couldn't locate her in the dark.

Any ideas about what happened or what I should do?

Kinda pissed off thinking I only grazed her or wounded her.  I'm going back out tomorrow after work to look while it's still light out.  I hope the weather stays cool.

first thing id do, is check the zero on your bow. go shoot it.  mine had something weird happen and was shooting a foot high at 30 yards once. cost me a deer.

damn man, I feel bad for you. you hunting 8 years before getting to shoot a deer?  whats the deer population like there?  around here you just have to move to find deer, they are everywhere. my first year bow hunting it took me about 10 days to finally find deer. id hunt in the stand for two nights straight, and if no deer I moved it. fourth spot I was covered up in deer. the ground was torn up with tracks, and I saw 30 deer in that little clump of woods, where they were eating acorns. 300 yards away though, in three different directions I never saw anything. id suggest you keep relocating, even if its only 100 yards away, it can make a huge difference.   how did you like the rush when you finally shot a deer?  holy shit, I bet you were shaking after 8 years of no deer !

my first bow deer though, didn't go so well, in fact, it might be what happened to you. I shot a nice buck at 25 yards. buck ran 40 yards, and stopped. he looked around, and licked his side. stood there for maybe 60 seconds, and slowly walked off. I gave him 30 minutes and went looking. I found the arrow broken in half, and a nice blood trail. where he stood for a minute, there was a blood spot the size of a car hood. blood trail was heavy, but got less and less until I only found a drop every 10-30 feet, then nothing. searched for hours and came back the next morning and searched for hours. I walked over hill and dale, searched brush, briars, etc. never found anything.

when I got back home from searching,  I test shot my bow and it was hitting a full 12" high.   the best I can figure is, the arrow went thru the deers backstrap. low enough to miss the spine, but high enough to miss the vitals. bled a lot, but clotted quickly. I bet that's what happened to you.

that same night  I killed a nice little buck from the same stand. perfect broadside shot right thru the lungs at 30 yards. deer only made it 40 yards.

Ohio allows for the use of tracking dogs to recover deer.  See if you can find someone with a trained dog.  I was licensed in NY, I held the license and could use ANY dog.  Unsure of how Ohio's law is written.  Call your ODNR and ask, I'm sure they can point you in the right direction.

Good luck, I know it's a crappy feeling.

Are you on facebook?  Member of any local or state hunting/archery pages on facebook?  Here in SD, we have guys that will often post up asking for help tracking a blood trail and they will connect with people that own tracking dogs.

But, you might not want dogs running through your core hunting area if you are uncertain that the shot was even mortal.  Deer are pretty resilient, I've seen does get legs shot off and still avoid coyotes all winter.

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

Went back out this afternoon and spent two hours looking with the help of sunlight.  No blood anywhere.

No blood where she was when I hit her. (I know I hit her, I saw it hit, and recovered the blood covered arrow.)

No blood near where I saw her lay down.  (Where I thought she laid down.)

No blood between those two spots either.  I did the zig zag pattern and the outward spirals all along the path she took.  Hell, I even ranged out around the entire general area. Took a walk down to the creek.  They go to water after a while, right?

Bah! Oh well, back at it Saturday morning.  

Not sure what your state laws are, but might wanna edit out the part about what time u shot the deer.. most places I know legal shoot ends at sunset. Even for bow..

Next step, look for water, wounded deer head for water, and usually take the path of least resistance before finding the nastiest thickest shit to bed down in..

Chances are the deer is dead or is going to die.. sounds like u hit high, and the blood didn’t fill up the cavity and start leaking yet.. a lower body shot even a bad one will have some dips and drops right away, he’ll even a leg or arm shot will provide a small blood trail..

The only time I have a delayed blood trail is when I go high, and knick the top of a lung or the arrow stays in and plugs the hole .. it takes a minute for the lung to fill up before they start spraying blood from wound or mouth/nose.. which is why practice is important

If your practicing shooting on the ground, and your bow is sighted in as such, u really need to see what your point of impact is from a tree stand.. hence my assumption you hit high.. broad heads are typically designed to create a wound that won’t heal on its own.. hence my assumption that the deer is probably dead..

Good luck with your search, I’m writing this from my stand and magic hour is upon me, I need to put my phone down I’ll check back later

I'm headed back to the same spot tomorrow morning, and if I don't get a shot at another deer, I'll spend some more time looking.

Thank you for your insight.

Good luck.  It can be tough tracking this time of year in Ohio with the red leaves on the ground.  Not sure if you did this or not, depending on how thick the area is, check stomach to waist level on trees for blood.  once killed a deer that ran 20 feet.  I found it curious not a drop of blood had hit the path the deer took, I was dragging it out and re-adjusted my grips on the antlers and happened to look at the saplings next to me.  They were covered in blood at about waist level.

Hope for a good outcome on finding your deer.  Keep us posted.

It happens to the best of us.. one thing I can’t tolorate is people that look for a few minutes and just give up.. your doing the right thing by exhausting every option before u quit..

4 years ago I had a bad spell, shot two doe from the same stand ( different days) and lost blood at exactly the same spot on the same trail same time of day.. it was a total mystery.. and this wasn’t a thicket or anything, open woods with open fields at the end of the trail.. nothing.. not a drop not a hair not a print nothing both deer just vanished as if abducted by aliens.. I had 5 people come in on both deer and grid search a square mile no carcass was ever found.. even to this day never found a pile of bones from either.. my only thought is both deer died, and someone beat me to the deer, carried it out.. however there were no boot prints, nor drag marks so I’m skeptical, but those deer straight up vanished.. both arrows were complete pass throughs, with good blood for the first 50 yards.. then poof.. gone.. with the amount of blood left on the trail there’s was no doubt in my mind of a good hit, and both deer died.  So it happens..

Time to invest in a dog. My grandpa's golden found every deer I shot for ten years. Last year, the first year without him, I lost my first deer ever and my pit was beyond useless in tracking.

Probably hit in no mans land above the lungs and below the spine. I did the same thing on the biggest buck I've ever seen while in a stand at 10 yards. Search for blood for hour, never found more than the three drops by my arrow. My cousin saw him a few weeks later doing just fine.

This will be my 10th season bowhunting and I've take one deer with my bow two years ago. I hunt mostly public land, I feel your pain. I've seen one spike this year.

Good luck the rest of the season.

Anatomically impossible to hit below the spine and above the lungs.  I promise you.  The lungs/heart fill the entire chest cavity inside the rib cage, look inside the rib cage and try to get an arrow under the spine, but not inside the rib cage.  It's physically impossible.

There is a lot of space above the spine directly above the vitals, if you slide an arrow through above there, all you hit is back strap and this happens A LOT because the spine is so low in that area.  If you hit a bit high, find little to no blood, or very spotty blood for a very long ways, you hit above the spine.

OP Sounds like you did all you could.  It happens to all of us, we all hate the feeling, but get back out there, shoot the bow to make sure it's still on and instill more confidence, then go hunting.

It's alright brother. I tracked a doe for well over half a mile over 3 hours last night.

Huge puddles of heart and lung blood, with scat (scared pooping? Not gut shot).

Blood trail just disappeared after half mile.

I shot this doe a few weeks ago, saw it ran about 70 yards and then heard a loud crash. Thought for sure she went down. Found no blood where I shot her and but did find small drops of blood following the dirrection she ran. Went back the next day and spent 2 hours searching, nothing.

Then... found my deer... and my arrow... alive and well: This pic shows the exit, taken the day after. I knew I shot a little high because when she ran off, I could see my arrow behind her left shoulder... I was about 15' up in the tree, I assumed from the angle that my arrow would hit the opposite side lung... not sure what happened to my broadhead though as it's missing in this pic. She must've knocked that arrow around pretty good, because it looks like I shot her quartering towards me on level ground.

This, get a tracking dog on it.  I don't bow hunt, but the local tracking dog has been very successful this year.

Crazy pic!

She probably broke the arrow, surprised it's still in her.  That shot is above the spine.  This happens a LOT, and the 'void' everyone talks about, is this.  It's physically impossible to shoot a deer through ribs, below the spine, and not hit lungs, both of them on a perfectly broadside shot.  Sucks you didn't get her.

Assuming she doesn't get an infection, and the arrow falls out so she can heal up, she will be fine.  Maybe you can get another shot at her, see where exactly that arrow went through.